Occupational Therapy for ASD

This is a series of photos I took to help my ASD son to remember what OT options he has. I put them in a 3 ring binder for him to use any time he wants.

He knows lots of options, but it is hard to remember them all, and super hard to recall when under stress! Taking pictures satisfies his visual strengths, but I kept the book simple, with very few words so as not to overwhelm with clutter.

Please feel free to use these ideas. But... get your own pictures. Someone else using pics of my kids would be creepy! Of course, working with an occupational therapist would be your best bet. What works for my kid may not be what works for your kid. Everything you see here was prescribed for my son by his therapist during a professional consultation. I'm not doling out advice here.

It's amazing to me how much the body affects the brain. Of course it makes sense that it does. And I've done my own body-brain work through the years with yoga, meditation, and more. But, it's just so amazing to watch as my own child benefits from these therapies.

Here are the pics with short descriptions of each therapy.

We call this the 'ball pass'. You pass a ball to a person who is facing away and behind you. First the ball goes over your heads, and then through the legs like a football. Repeat about 5 times, and then reverse the direction of the ball. Moving the head up and down through space is excellent vestibular input and it can be very grounding. 

Passing the ball between the legs football-style. Keep passing over and under! 

Any ball will work for this- tennis ball or larger ball. This one is a 'nubby ball' and the nubs simply offer MORE sensory input. You roll your feet back and forth over the ball while sitting. Or just press your feet into the ball. This is a good one for when stuck at a desk.

I found these wide, flat bungee cords at Wallyworld for less than 5$ a pair. They are adjustable which is handy. It would be hard to find one just the right length for what is needed here.

The bungees go on a chair, like an extra rung for your feet. But since the bungees are flexible and stretchy, you can do all sorts of things with them. Also great for desk work.

You can put your feet on top and bounce a bit.

Or behind the cord and stretch your legs. The resistance feels great. I like to put my feet in front of the cords and let them press into my achilles tendon. I know that sounds strange but it feels really good! Then I bounce a bit with my legs too. I guess I have a hard time sitting still as well as the kids. :)

We found this 'balance board' at Aldi one year. It was about 12$. I've replaced the no-slip pad with foam shelf liner because the no-slip pad disappeared! 

You use your whole body to balance on this thing, so it's a great core workout. But you especially use your ankles. The joint pressure on the ankles is really grounding and the whole exercise helps you to become aware of your location in space.
We also like to put this balance board at the foot of a chair when doing desk work. It's a great fidget for the feet.

Hands out straight, legs apart, and SPIN! Not too fast. It's not a race. Turn in circles about five times....

Turning, turning, turning....

And then turn the opposite direction five times. Again, not too fast. It's not really about spinning. It's about finding your body's location in space, and getting the head moving thought space. If you feel dizzy, see the next pic..

For some people, turing or spinning can make them dizzy and disoriented. If you feel dizzy put both hands on top of your head and apply light but stable pressure. It helps!

For this one, you puts dots (or stickers) at shoulder, elbow, and between levels. Then reach around to touch them with your torso. 

The location of the dots/stickers according to your elbow, shoulder, and spot inbetween. Don't forget to do the opposite side too!

These are like toe touches, but different. It is not about stretching the leg muscles at all. It is about moving your arms and head through space. Raise arms up above the head, and then bend down to touch TOWARD the opposite foot. It doesn't matter if you touch the foot or not. Again, this is about moving your upper body through space. It's vestibular!

Then the opposite side! Do five or so of these. Little Brother likes to incorporate this big movement with the spinning above. It's a good combo.

What would we do without the yoga ball?! This is great in lieu of a chair any day. Little Brother uses it to lay on while he does Legos, sit on for video games, and so much more. 

For rolling, you place your body squarely over the ball...

and then roll gently over until your head is upsidedown on the ground. A little neck compression is great. Just not too hard, and no bumping or bouncing. Then roll back. Do this a few times, OR just hang upsidedown as long as it is comfy.
This ball is a little small for Little Brother. He's grown and could use a larger one!

Deep pressure, such as a good back massage is so grounding. Light touch can actually be painful for people with sensory disorders. But DEEP, firm, slow, and solid touch feels great and is very grounding.

Going for a walk is one of the easiest ways to get OT! There are so many things going on for the legs, arms, torso, head.. even they eyes get in on the action, as they scan ahead cross laterally. You can also add a packpack with something heavy- books, rocks, whatever. That pressure around the chest is good stuff. I like this pack because it is every so slightly small. And that means it really hugs around the chest. Plus it has a belly clip. 

PUSH against the wall. No really! Try to push it over! Plant those legs. Put one leg further back than the other and push. Then switch legs and push again. Hands should be at shoulder level.
An alternative that is fun is to push against another person's hands. Face each other and press your hands together. Don't let go suddenly or someone will come crashing down! We use this a lot when in public and no 'OT equipment' is handy. You can always push on a wall or on each others' hands.

Joint compression of the wrists is going on here. A lot of kids do this naturally at school in their desks, and are told not to. But they intuitively know how to satisfy their body's needs!

We call this the Burrito! It's deep pressure for the whole body. You wrap up in thick quilts, blankets, pillows, or whatever you have. Weighted blankets are great too. Sometimes Little Brother gets into his burrito, and Bis Sister or I lay on top of him! It sounds kind of crazy but he LOVES it. His mood can do a 180 in just a few seconds of burrito-ing. It's magic! 

Why is there a picture of a sausage here? Because FOODS can be OT too! A CHEWY, soft food like summer sausage, bagels, etc, can be great OT. The chewing and chewing with lots of resistance is good stuff.

Cold, crispy, firm foods are ALERTING! They can help bring your energy levels up when you are in a slump. That crunching is a great thing!

Sipping a thick liquid through a long straw is very calming. The sucking action is grounding. It's not safe to drink hot liquids through straws, but warm might be very soothing. In this case we have a cold (semi frozen) smoothie, which is alerting, and the long straw, which is calming.

Legos are a favorite activity for Little Brother. Any time he can do a calm, predictable, favorite work, he can find his happy place. Performing repetitive tasks that are easy for a person is helpful for calming down and focusing.

Going through karate moves is fantastic! Karate is totally OT based. Lots of joint compression, lots of repetitive, cross lateral movements. It's awesome. The kids practice through 4-H, so lessons are super cheap!

Little Brother loves to create music, so one way he can both calm himself and focus is to plunk on the piano. He likes to listen to a piece of music, and try to find that music on the piano.

and of course, listening to music or natural sounds is great. Little Brother does this sometimes when writing his book or doing schoolwork.

Writing can be very difficult so having the right tool is essential! This grip is squishy and large. It's the favorite. We've tried seriously, like 30 grips and thicknesses of pencil, etc. It's just hard finding the right one. But when you do find one, HANG ON TO IT! It is also satisfying to use this pencil and grip as a fidget while listening to instructions.

This is just some expired beans put into a leftover package (with a lid to keep cats, mice, and bugs OUT!) It just feels great to bury your hands or feet, to grab fistfulls of beans and squeeze. A great sensory tool! 

The opposite of joint compression is joint release. This small, light tug on the joints can feel very satisfying. It's best to have a professional show you how to do this. It's a very subtle move that may not feel like anything to the person doing the move. You don't want to damage someone's joint, especially in smaller children.

One thing I don't have a picture of is the swingset! Now that spring is here, Little Brother has been swinging again- another wonderful way to get vestibular stimulation AND to be outside in nature!

Academics for 2016 - 2017 ~ Build Your Library 9

Well, I haven't blogged here in two years. This week I've been making some updates and adding entries so you will see a few new posts here. But otherwise, what have we been doing in the past two years???!!!

Honestly, I can't remember.

Two Aprils ago, I finally hit a wall, pushed my doctor to do more testing, and discovered I have hypothyroidism. That is a long story in itself that I won't go into here. But what I will say is that medication changed my life in ways I never could have imagined. I started with Armour brand of desiccated pig thyroid, and when that became less stringently produced, switched to generic NP (Nature) Thyroid (also desiccated pig thyroid with T4 and T3). I am not perfect, but I feel SO much better. Before meds, I was a kind of fatigued that most people will never understand, including the doctors.

So the last two years have been a time of physical recovery. Low thyroid was also causing much of my anxiety. I had worked through the reasons for my anxiety with years of therapy, meds, cognitive behavioral changes, and more. Yet, I was feeling worse every day and becoming more and more fatigued. Thyroid meds changed all that and my anxiety is GONE! (Well, I live a stressful life as a low-income, single mom so I always have a whisper of anxiety.)

The result is that my motivations have changed. I used to be, in part, motivated by anxiety. And now, I'm not. It's hard to explain, but life is different in some ways. For the better. But I'm not driven like I was, and I've relaxed.

In addition, Little Brother, who I always knew had sensory processing disorder, but was easily treated and dealt with at home, earned his own diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. I will blog about that as well, in more detail, at a later time. What I will say about that is that I thought I was losing my son, he thought he was losing his mind, and a good friend introduced the concept of ASD to us. He's basically Asperger's, although that is no longer an official DSM diagnosis. Anyway, with therapy, he is growing by leaps and bounds. So much change and healing going on!

I feel like I can't leave Big Sister out... she has had her own transformations that I will need to blog about in detail! She got to travel to Japan for Nihongo language school and homestays for two months! Not many people know that 4-H has an International program, but that is how Big Sister ended up in Japan the year before starting junior college. More on that later!

In the mean time, I felt that for the first time in 16 years, a somewhat comprehensive curriculum was needed to make things easy in our UNSCHOOLING family. It's been a mixed bag, but generally has enriched all of our lives! A friend recommended Build Your Library a few years ago. I didn't pay much attention because we unschool. But this past year, I researched a bit more and decided I really liked the idea. I won't explain the system here, but will show some of the books we are using. (It is a reading-heavy curriculum that can be customized to your family's needs)

I chose BYL9, (ninth grade) because while Big Sister is a senior in high school and Little Brother is in 8th grade, the curriculum encompassed a topic that we all love. It's challenging enough for high school and customizable to tweak for either grade level. The kids can both do the same curriculum so that I'm not losing my mind trying to keep up with two different currics!

Here are some of the books we are using with BYL9, plus some extras that I added in. There are a few BYL9 books that we just did not care for, so have dropped. And that is what I love about homeschooling. We can do what works for us. Life is a smorgasbord. Take what you like and leave the rest. :)

This is my book and subject organization system. It works! Each subject has its own drawer, and sometimes a subject has more than one book. We do not do each one every day. That would be crazy! Notebooks, papers, and any equipment is in the drawer as well. The best example of that would be ELEMENTS. In that drawer is a book about elements, special round cardstock pieces to draw a Bohr-style model, proper circle stencils, colored markers, tape (for putting on the wall), etc. Some drawers simply have a book.

This has been fun. Just the basics, but very effective for technique

This is not a subject. It's just a latchhook that Big Sis is doing

I have mixed feelings about this chemistry curriculum. It is written by a woman who is very pro-Intelligent Design. That is completely unacceptable, and yet, she has written a marvelous and easy to understand book for conceptual chemistry. So I'm going through it with the kids until we can tackle a high school chemistry text book. I'm watching for elements of Intelligent Design, but have not found any yet.... If I do, I'm happy to take a black magic marker to redact the text. This is NOT BYL9

The Mary Oliver and poetry 180 books are BYL9. The Mensa is not. I still love this Mensa list of poetry memorization, and we come back to it every few years. Poetry 180 simply is read aloud for pure enjoyment. I am OK with the Mary Oliver book. She has a bit of an elitist approach to poetry, but her basis is sound. And of course, she is a wonderful poet.

This is not BYL9, but for Little Brother who simply does not have the knack for spelling. The CD player in the drawer is to help him relax with the sounds of nature while spelling and writing

Some fun stuff that is NOT BYL9. 

Again, NOT BYL9. But a basic, nuts and bolts, comprehensive math program that leaves no stone unturned.

Little Brother completed a US Civics course after two years of studying with his homeschool co-op. He took the final test and did great, earning a certificate of completion!

Japanese language and 4H projects for Big Sister!

Wordly Wise remains a favorite vocabulary curric. The kids began to enjoy that even when we unschooled. It was one thing they enjoyed sitting down with and tackling in a more traditional manner. It is NOT BYL9. Figuratively Speaking and HTRLAP are BYL9, and great fun! Figuratively Speaking is a basic workbook, that gives a little practice. It is short and sweet. The HTRLAP book is SO FUN for my Lit Kids! They enjoy reading it and applying what they learn to books and movies they have experienced, as well as to stories they are writing.

I added this group of books because I've always wanted to include the 2 page stories somehow into our day. It's better to savor each story by itself than to read the short books entirely through in one sitting. The BYL approach works perfectly with these books about Buddhism

We've loved and hated this BYL9 book. It's a great topic that we are all interested in, but the reading can be dry and a bit tangly for the tongue to read aloud. There is a lot of name dropping and reference of scientists and facilities that are important in the big picture, but not for getting the point across. I would edit half of the content out of this book and get to the meat of the topic if I could. Overall, it's a positive contribution to the curriculum, but I can't help but to wonder if there is something better out there.

Recommended by a friend, this nonBYL book consists of 25 short chapters to ponder and read. I love it, and it has inspired many ethics discussions for the kids.

I don't remember why I bought this book, but I'm glad I did. We have gone BYL style with it (even though it's not part of the curric) and chosen one element at a time to read about and create a Bohr style model for. The whole table will end up on the wall soon. It's interesting how the kids actually now know what each element is all about! They aren't just letters, but real parts of our world. I love this author and we saw his 'table of the periodic table' on a PBS program a few years back.

What can I say? THis BYL book covers our favorite topic in the world! Great illustrations for our journey through the history of life!

OK. Simon Winchester is not a BYL book, but it should be. Any budding geologist will love this book, but it is for older kids as the life story of William Smith has some depressing moments. 25 Fossils is great fun and I love the commentaries on each of these significant life forms. We have not read Stuff of Life yet, but the graphic novel looks excellent. Sandwalkers is a bit dystopian, but an excellent graphic novel. We also love Hosler's graphic novel Clan Apis, about bees! The two Dickinson books have not yet been read, but they look promising. How can you go wrong with Rachel Carson's Sea Around Us? The Shakespeare... I'm not too crazy about it. Truly it is a lot to ask anyone, adult, let alone kid, to read an entire Shakespeare play. And here is the deal. They were never meant to be read, but to be watched. So while a re-writing or a notated excerpt would be great, this just is not. And then Raptor Red... well it's a documentary style story about a dinosaur. Black Beauty, move over! 

Ah... the Cornwell novel. Don't bother with it. Just don't. It's an adolescent sexual fantasy in historic form. No thanks. But A History of US by Hakim? That is a keeper. We are still plowing through this series, especially Little Brother who loves history. This is NOT BYL, but we sure like it.

Again, what can be said about these two BYL selections? They are amazing.

Ah... my 17 year old is taking a college course for credit. This orientation class has been wonderful and goes toward her degree! Next year, she will graduate high school and start junior college full time.

Before college officially begins, Big Sister is pushing herself to get some classics under her belt. She has a list of subjects she wants to polish before graduation.

Big Sister tackling algebra before college. 

ANd this one was recommended by Big Sis to Little Brother because it was SO POPULAR in Japan when she was there!